


Heated

by hutchabelle



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beach Sex, Bonfires, Ex Sex, F/M, Returning Home, Reunion Sex, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27547333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hutchabelle/pseuds/hutchabelle
Summary: Peeta Mellark left home at 18 for college at his girlfriend’s request. He hadn’t seen her since, but one night, a decade later he joined his high school friends for a bonfire on the beach and found her again in a very heated way.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73
Collections: Seasons of Everlark— Fall 2020, SoE: Autumn 2020





	Heated

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endlessnightlock (Endlessnightlock)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endlessnightlock/gifts).



> Written for Seasons of Everlark, Autumn 2020. Prompt: Bonfire

Peeta checked the time and pressed harder on the gas pedal. He was running behind, and he hated being late. Unused to having a chance to take time during the fall for anything personal, he felt a little out of sorts as he wound along the ocean highway on his way to meet his friends for a seasonal bonfire. He hadn’t been to the event for ages, not since he’d left for college and spent the bulk of his time back east. He’d missed Oregon autumns and nights on the beach with crisp air and changing leaves. It was good to be back, even if he was going to be late.

Darkness fell as he steered the car, passing slower traffic when he could and wondering exactly who was coming. Finnick, his best friend from high school, invited him several weeks ago, and Peeta had put him off until his calendar opened up for a few days during his business trip to the west coast. As wind blew in through the car windows and ruffled his hair, he admitted accepting the invitation was the appropriate action. He needed this break from the regular stress of his job.

By the time he exited the highway and pulled onto the dirt road that led to the beach, it was dark, and the stars twinkled above him. He smiled at the forms sitting around the fire, friendly figures from his past who called out for him to join them.

“Peeta!” Finnick shouted, his cheeks rosy from merriment and drinking. “We were just about to go skinny dipping.”

“Before I even had a chance to say hello?” Peeta observed drily. “That’s…just great, man. Seriously, great.”

“You can stay,” he offered. “Katniss is planning to.”

Her name washed over him, friendly and comforting. Katniss Everdeen. His first love, high school sweetheart, best friend for years until he made the difficult decision to leave and pursue his education from halfway across the nation. It had broken his heart to leave her, but she’d insisted, refusing to allow him to give up anything for her. And now, here she was, in the flesh, and flashing a tremulous smile his way.

“Hi,” Peeta managed to say. “Good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too, Peeta.”

Her melodic voice soothed him, working its way into his joints and spreading out in warm waves that swelled through his bones. His body relaxed, inch by inch, until his limbs loosened and grew peaceful. All his usual twitching and extraneous energy stilled as he sank down next to her. He was too lost in her to even notice as the others slipped into the darkness. The sound of their laughter swept in from the waves, but he didn’t bother to pay any attention.

“How have you been?” he asked, eager to hear her speak again. “It’s been so long.”

“Okay. Still here. Put my sister through college. She’s in med school in California now.”

Peeta nodded, memories of Prim Everdeen’s infectious grin danced in front of his eyes. “Good for her.”

“She’s doing great. My mom’s okay. Better mentally. Always takes her medicine,” she added, referring to her mother’s mental health issues that had forced Katniss to grow up much too fast and parent her younger sibling. Peeta’d tried to help out as much as possible to ease her load, but he’d had his own problems to worry about. He still wasn’t sure if he would stop by to visit his own mother before he left town.

“What about you?” he asked, curious about her reticence to talk about herself. “What’s happening for Katniss Everdeen?”

She shrugged and twisted her braid around her index finger before pulling the tie free and nervously unbraiding her hair. Once it was free, she plaited it again, all the while biting her bottom lip.

“I mean…”

“I always loved your hair down,” he said softly. “I know you like it tucked back, but when it’s loose around your face, you’re gorgeous.”

She flushed, pleased but bashful, and shook out her hair. “Thanks.”

“You’re always gorgeous.”

He held her gaze, shining molten silver as the fire reflected in them. She stared back at him, uncertain, and he scooted closer to her. There weren’t words enough to explain how much he’d missed her, how the dull ache of wanting and not having her had left him empty inside so that his victories felt hollow and his losses hurt even more. He’d only been with her for a few minutes, and he already felt like he was reborn.

“Things haven’t been so great for me,” she admitted, barely audible over the crackle of the fire and the rush of the surf. “I… I think I got lost after you left.”

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

She smiled sadly and stared out over the ocean. “I know I told you to leave, and I don’t regret that at all. I thought I was prepared to stand on my own, and I did. I’m proud of that. I took care of myself in addition to helping my mom and supporting Prim in her success.” She curled her hands into fists for a split second, but then forced them to relax. With a rueful smile, she turned to him and admitted, “You weren’t here to remind me to take care of myself first, and I forgot. I figured I’d worry about me later, but now… It’s been a decade, and my life’s at a standstill.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You should have.”

“Why? What could you do about it? We drifted apart. You had your own life. You deserved that. You still do,” she argued. “I wasn’t going to take that away from you. I wouldn’t ever.”

“What if that’s what I wanted? What if _you’re_ what I want now— _who_ I want now?” Agitated, he thrust his fingers through his hair, shoving his curls off his forehead in exasperation.

“You don’t even know me anymore. I doubt you would.”

Peeta opened his mouth to protest, but their friends returned at that moment, giggling and sopping and partially clothed. Finnick and his fiancée were lip locked, and other couples were paired together as they grabbed bare skin and donned their discarded clothing. It took only a few minutes before they descended into complete debauchery and peeled off for more private surroundings. Peeta could hear vehicles starting and driving away, leaving him alone with Katniss again.

“So much for reunions,” he muttered, slightly irritated and simultaneously thrilled with his remaining company.

“Well, maybe it’s time to go,” she mumbled and made to get up, but Peeta grabbed her arm. Squeezing it gently, he looked at her, pleading silently, until she settled back onto the beach blanket where they sat.

“You know,” he mused, “I hated that you told me to leave. I didn’t see it as you doing what was best for me so much as you giving yourself a chance to have a life without me. I thought maybe I’d been too overbearing, too serious, too concerned about settling down when you deserved a chance to make your own choices. I missed you, and I couldn’t admit it because my heart was broken, so I cut you out, concentrated on school, got my MBA, started working, received a promotion or two. I did all those things, but none of it really mattered to me. Not without someone to share it with, and there was no one I wanted to do that with but you.”

“I could have fought for you. I could have, but I was scared. I loved you so much, and I knew what that kind of love had done to my mom when my father died,” she admitted hoarsely. “It was almost a relief when you gave up on me.”

“I never gave up on you. Never.”

“Almost a relief,” she repeated, “but not really. I always felt like part of me was halfway across the country with you.”

Her admission washed over him, flowing like warm honey and sweetening the world around him. She felt the same way. She must, and that meant he had a chance. He finally had another shot to be with the woman he’d loved since he’d first seen her the day they started Kindergarten.

“Come with me, then,” he whispered. “Or let me come back to you. Whichever way works, just let us be together.”

It was too fast, too ridiculous to expect their reunion in one night, but that didn’t stop him from wanting her. I couldn’t keep him from imagining the future he’d not allowed himself to believe he could have. He could see it all so clearly—them together, marriage, children, building a life he wanted so badly he ached for it.

She raised her face to his, wistful and cautious. Carefully, he tilted her chin and brushed his lips against hers. A delicious whimper fell from her, and Peeta almost crushed her to him. The feel of her in his arms was nearly too much to bear after the years apart. She was oxygen to air-starved lungs, and he craved her. He swept into her, eagerly chasing her taste, practically swallowing her whole. A warning tickled at the back of his brain—don’t come on too strong. Take it slow. Let her make the move. Don’t beg her to agree.

Pulling away reluctantly, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry. That was a lot. I’m back on my best behavior.”

“That’s too bad,” she answered hoarsely, licking her lips. “That’s really, really too bad.”

“What is?” he whispered, afraid to burst their bubble. It was safe there, warm and affectionate and full of possibility. He willed her to feel the same.

“I was hoping maybe you’d want to be a little naughty.”

Katniss stood, then, and held out her hand. Head spinning, he rose and watched as she took a step back and shrugged off her button down. His mouth fell open as her olive toned skin lit up golden in the firelight. She licked her lips and slid a strap over her shoulder, exposing the curve of her breast.

It was too soon. This couldn’t be happening. He attempted pinching himself to wake up, but what he saw was real. His first love stood before him, baring herself to his eager gaze, and he swore he’d gone to Heaven.

“Katniss.”

Her name came out as a prayer, but her body was the gospel. Acres of gilded skin emerged as her clothes fell, and he observed the ritual reverently. When she stood before him, exposed and waiting, he joined her. Disrobing, he breathed in the ocean spray as cool breezes caressed his feverish skin.

Peeta stared, unable to tear his eyes away from the glow of firelight on her smooth body. Pert nipples graced perfect breasts, and her waist curved into swayed hips and lithe legs adorned with a strip of dark curly hair that practically invited him to dive in. Stepping forward, he pulled her into his arms and jumped.

The combustion was spontaneous. No, even that was too slow for the flagrance between them. He was on fire, burning brighter than the sun with his skin melded to hers. Collapsing onto the beach blanket, she wrapped her legs around his waist and rutted against him.

“You have… no idea… the effect you have,” he whispered between breaths as he worshipped her body with heated open-mouthed kisses. “Sweetheart.”

She arched her back and opened for him. He dipped his head slowly, giving her time to protest if she wanted. When she did nothing more than moan his name, he nudged his nose against her slit and licked a stripe along her skin. Grinning at her reaction, he shook his head and prodded deeper. Her flavor burst on his tongue, simultaneously tangy and sweet, and he savored and devoured at the same time.

“Peeta,” she cried, desperate but eager. “Feels so good…”

Her approval convinced him to raise his expectations and give her what she really wanted. Tilting her hips, he spread her open and dove back in. She bucked against him, her hips growing wilder while her cries became wanton. Groaning her name, his voice was muffled against her slick skin. Latching onto her clit, he sucked, while she twisted under his mouth and cried his name to the night. Milking her with his tongue, he worked her through a climax, grunting as writhed under him.

She went limp, shivering, although her skin scorched his, heat radiating from her in the wake of her orgasm. He shifted on the blanket, moving her from the moisture captured in the blanket beneath her and draped her over him. Her breath puffed on his chest as her limbs tangled with his, clumsy and pliable as he traced her spine with the pads of his fingers. She mouthed against his chest, painting him with sloppy kisses, and nuzzling his chest.

“You want more?” he asked hoarsely. “You need to come again?” She nodded and snuggled into him, so he maneuvered her limbs so she straddled him and guided her onto his cock. “That’s it,” he groaned. “Feels so good.”

She moved, and he slanted his head back as she began to ride him. Stars flickered overhead, twinkling cheekily at the bonfire. The fire crackled, flames leaping to the heavens, dancing happily in the breeze and cheering their coupling, years in the making.

He burned from the inside out, embers filling his belly, until he was coming, spilling deep into her, pouring the very essence of contentment from him to her and connecting them in a way that he knew would change him forever.

Peeta watched her—beautiful, graceful, powerful. He surveyed her as she tightened, her face peaceful, her hair wild. He steadied her when she threw back her head and shouted, spasms wracking her body. When she was done, she slumped against him, sated and drowsy, her skin dewy and fused to his.

“I’m never going to be able to let you go after this,” she murmured into the sweaty crook of his neck and shoulder.

“Don’t. Don’t do it.” She shriveled, and he realized how that must have sounded. “No, sweetheart. I mean, don’t let me go. I don’t plan to let you get away after finally finding you again.”

“It’s not practical.”

“Love’s never practical. Fuck practical. Come with me, or let me come here. I’ll make it happen,” he insisted.

She didn’t speak for several moments, and he realized what he’d implied—that he loved her, that he’d move for her, that he’d upend his life if it meant he could spend the rest of his life with her. After what felt like an eternity, she finally spoke.

“I’ve kind of been ready for a new adventure.”

A smile split his face, and he rolled them over so his body blanketed hers. He accepted her offer with a deep kiss as the bonfire lit their future.


End file.
